Show User Library Folder in Mac OS X Lion & Mountain Lion

In OS X Lion and Mountain Lion the default setting is to hide the Library folder, probably to stop people from deleting or damaging files that are necessary for OS X Lion to run properly.
unhide-library-folder-os-x

The Library folder was visible by default in past versions of Mac OS X, this is how to get it back:-

Show User ~/Library in OS X Lion & Mountain Lion

Open Terminal, and enter the following command to show or hide the directory:
chflags nohidden ~/Library/

The users Library folder will immediately become visible again. Reverting this back to the standard Lion setting is simple too:

Hide User ~/Library in OS X Lion (default setting)

This returns to the default setting of hiding the user Library directory:
chflags hidden ~/Library

Changes take effect immediately again, and Library becomes invisible to the user.

6 thoughts on “Show User Library Folder in Mac OS X Lion & Mountain Lion

  1. This was very helpful for 2011 on mountain lion, making the library folder viewable is essential so you can move microsoft user data to the correct preferences folder.

    So much pain but I am glad I am not the only one experiencing it 🙂

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